Gretchen's Dilemma
by jackal123
Summary: A prank gone wrong gives Gretchen a difficult choice - Her friends or her academic future?
1. Chapter 1

**My Second Recess Fanfic. They're more like the ~10 minute episodes they used to do.**

**Note: It really is going to focus around Gretchen. So think of this as a prologue.**

**I feed off your comments :)**

It was early Wednesday morning at Third Street Elementary, and the sun hadn't even risen yet. Fog rolled throughout the playground, decreasing visibility considerably. But why would it matter? No one would be at school for another hour. Except for a certain group of 6 friends.

TJ laid out the blueprints to the school building on the ground. "Ok, everyone have their sections?" He asked his 5 friends. They all nodded.

"Good. I'll stay here with the hose. Remember, we only have enough cups for one every square foot."

TJ nodded as Vince, Mikey, Spinelli, Gretchen and Gus rolled their restaurant-style carts through the back door of the school. TJ put the blueprints back in his red cap and fixed it backwards over his light brown hair. He felt pretty proud of himself: putting cups of water all over the school has been done before, but certainly not by a bunch of 5th graders. The harmless, but time-consuming cleanup required would mean all the kids would have to be outside. The artificial extension of recess would put him in the books for good.

TJ waited for 20 minutes for the first person to return, Vince. His basketball shorts and shoes must have let him run through his section fast. He grabbed out his extra cups and rapidly spread them around on the cart, while TJ filled them with the hose.

"Teej, this was a great idea. You're going down in history for sure!"

TJ smirked. "That's what I was aimin' for. Of course you guys are gonna share the fame too."

Spinelli was right behind Vince as soon as TJ was finished filling up the cups with the hose, and heard their conversation. "Wait, I thought you didn't want anyone to know about this?"

"That's right. On our last day of 6th grade we can do this prank again and let people know. It'll be like our calling card."

"Ah, gotcha," Spinelli smiled, as her brown eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Her cups were just done being filled as she rushed the cart out. From around the back Mikey came out, huffing and his face bright red.

"TJ, I was a little thirsty, and I kinda drank a few cups of water. I hope that's ok."

"How much?"

"Oh, like 6."

"That's ok, Mike-O. We've got plenty of time to spare. It won't slow us down. Heck, drink a few more if you want."

"Gosh, thanks!" Mikey exclaimed. He was pretty easy to please.

Gretchen came around the corner after a few minutes.

"TJ, while I admire your excellent planning skills, I found my section, the locker section, to be slightly too misshapen to benefit from a square-foot distance of cups. I positioned the majority of cups in the middle and spared some for the bathrooms." TJ was relieved to know the possible problems of this prank were in good hands.

"Thanks Gretchen. I don't know what I would do without your brain behind these pranks."

Gretchen beamed with joy. And Gretchen burned those words TJ said in her mind. She ran off with the cart, repeating to herself those words. _I don't know what I would do without you, _she thought to herself as she jogged down to the school, her red pigtails bouncing up and down.

After a few more minutes TJ expected Gus to show up, but he heard nothing. "Gus," he spoke on his walkie-talkie. "You there, man?"

"Um, TJ, I have a problem." Gus said in a tone, more worried than his usual one. "You know how you said go to the back of the hall first? Well, I kinda forgot… so, I tried re-arranging them but now the cups are all around me!"

TJ kept calm. "It's ok, Gus. Make yourself a path and worry about it later. We still got plenty of time…"

Through the walkie-talkie TJ could hear the sound of a… car? Impossible! Teachers weren't supposed to arrive for another 45 minutes!

"Mikey, we got company. You have a visual?"

The tall kid was able to see out the window over the fence. A violet and strangely-designed car pulled into the teacher's parking lot. On the license plate read, "Da Finster".

Mikey radioed in with haste. "Guys, it's Ms. Finster! We're doomed!"

Vince took his turn. "Wait, I can see her. Teej, she's on my side, looks like she's only going over to her Classroom, the usual route. I haven't even started putting cups over there."

"Whew", TJ spoke. "Ok guys, keep yourselves out of sight. Prank adjourned."

The walkie-talkies went silent and they could hear the mumblings of Ms. Finster.

"Those dang miscreants." She lamented. "Stealing the key and locking the Teacher's Lounge. Little hooligans didn't count on me changing the lock, did they?"

"Uh-oh" TJ froze. He urgently grabbed his walkie-talkie and whispered. "Gus! She's over by you! Hide!"

Gus heard TJ's message and started panicking. He looked around and shook. "Oh, no! Where do I hide?" He said to himself, not knowing his hand was still on the walkie-talkie.

Spinelli whispered harshly, "Find a closet, Griswold! And stop using the walkie-talkie!"

Gus found the Janitor's closet and luckily, it was still unlocked. He entered into the cramped room. Silence once again filled the halls until Ms. Finster's steps were heard throughout the hall. Luckily, the cups were either in another hall or in the corners where the darkness obscured her view.

Ms. Finster walked closer and closer to the Janitor's Closet, which was just around the corner from the Teacher's Lounge. However, one cup of water caught her view, left over from when Gus was trying to make a path. She picked it up. "Lazy ne'er-do-wells can't pick up after themselves," she muttered.

_It sure is dark in here._ Gus thought to himself. _And spooky…_he looked up at the ceiling and saw a big, empty spider web, and his heart began to race. He quietly stepped around a little, until an enormous black spider appeared right in front of his face, hanging by a string.

"AAAAHH!" Gus screamed, and stumbled. Ms. Finster quickly jolted her head towards the room. "What in tarnation?" She yelled. Gus reached for something to steady his grip but only came in contact with the cart. It flew out the door and right into Ms. Finster, with Gus toppling out the door.

But that wasn't the worst part. The cart was filled with cups of water which, upon impact, splashed all over Ms. Finster, soaking her with freezing cold hose water. Gus only sheepishly looked up at the menacing figure, and couldn't tell the water was cold due to her face getting extremely flushed and her rage boiling through it.

"GRIIIIIIIISWOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, hi Ms. Finster."

Ms. Finster scowled. "Alright, Griswold. Where are your little friends?"

"Gus! Radio in! What happened?" TJ said from the walkie-talkie. Ms. Finster grabbed Gus in one hand and the walkie-talkie in the other.

"TJ Detweiler. You and your rapscallions are in serious trouble, kiddo. Report to Principal Prickly's office immediately." Ms. Finster started dragging Gus towards the office.

"Uh, ma'am, I don't think…"

"HOLY HECK!" Ms. Finster yelled, as she saw the hundreds of cups blocking hallways.

Gretchen, Vince, Spinelli and Mikey met up with TJ outside. He was baffled. "Guys, how did you get all those cups done? I thought it would take another half an hour!"

Vince and Spinelli turned to Gretchen. "Gretchen got out two of her science fair projects from her locker," Spinelli put her arm around Gretchen.

"Yeah, a robot with 20 arms and a condensation machine sure makes the job go fast," Vince added.

"Tennnder." TJ said with a devious smile. "Too bad we'll be in big trouble."

"Likely," Gretchen replied, "But we get an extra hour of recess."

And sure enough, they did. As kids and teachers entered the school about half an hour later, they were met by hundreds of cups of water. Some foolishly tried to step around them, but the crowding caused many to trip and spill water all over the floor. The school hallways were closed for Hank to mop up, and kids had nowhere to go but outside on the playground. However, TJ and his friends were kept under close watch of Ms. Finster until Principal Prickly arrived for a little chat. The old man shot an annoyed look, and said to them,

"Detweiler and Grundler, follow me."

"Where to, sir?"

"The only classroom that isn't flooded by your little 'trick'. Come on, I don't have all day."

"Pardon me, Principal Prickly, did you say you wanted me?"

"I know what I said, Grundler. You and Detweiler follow me."

The rest of the gang looked at each other with confused looks.

"HEY! No looking at each other!" Ms. Finster yelled, and the gang quickly obeyed.

Principal Prickly led them by a back door to room 51, the pale kids' room. _The dark and musty interior is perfect for interrogations_, thought TJ. Gretchen was still trying to figure out why Prickly wanted her and not just TJ, who usually had these kinds of chats.

Principal Prickly pulled up a table and sat across from the two kids. He turned to TJ.

"So what's your angle today, Detweiler? You think flooding our school is funny?"

TJ put his hands up. "Not at all, sir. We just put the cups there, we didn't expect kids to walk all over them. You could have closed off the school or something."

Principal Prickly's face tightened as he stood up and slammed his hands on the table. "You've got some nerve, Detweiler. Now there won't be any class for another hour!"

"Sorry sir, but it's only fair. Those 'be yourself' lectures were cutting into recess time. I've counted about an hour's worth of recess lost because of those things."

Principal Prickly got flustered and decided it wasn't worth his time to continue. "Fine, you and your friends get a week of level 4 Detention." TJ and Gretchen gasped.

"Man, this whomps!"

"You want to be a hero for your classmates, well there you go. Too bad you won't take part in their reward."

TJ slowly and sluggishly got up out of his chair and exited the room. Gretchen tried to follow.

"Hold on Grundler, I'm not through with you." Gretchen sat back down cautiously.

TJ peeked into the room from the window until Principal Prickly motioned him to shoo.

"Gretchen," Principal Prickly said calmly, which gave her a weird feeling. Not to mention he didn't call her by her last name. "You have a lot of potential. You could do great things with that intelligence. But your friends… they get you in trouble a lot. So that's why I feel that you may need some 'special encouragement'"

"Why, what do you mean by that?" Gretchen asked.

"I'm not going to assign you detention. Such punishments would be a waste of our and your time. From now on, if I or Ms. Finster or any other teacher catches you with those kids at recess, or if you are involved in these pranks, your GPA will be affected."

Gretchen's mouth hung open. "With all due respect sir, you can't do that! It's against the board of education's policy!"

"I know that!" He snapped. "I've already talked with them and they agree these 'circumstances' make it acceptable to impose such a punishment."

Gretchen crossed her arms. "This is preposterous! I… I… demand you give me detention at once!" Prickly shook his head.

"It won't do you any good, Gretchen. Detention would only numb your mind. It's not a suitable punishment."

Gretchen felt her life fly before her eyes. How could they do this? Not only would she not be able to do any more pranks, she couldn't hang around her friends! And nothing in school, no, not even her GPA, was more important to her.

Principal Prickly leaned in and took off his glasses. "Listen, Gretchen. How long have your friends been holding you back? Think of all you could do in school without them. We're only doing this with your best interest in mind."

_But my friends ARE my best interest,_ Gretchen thought, but she didn't say it out loud. She walked quietly outside where TJ was waiting outside, eyes wide.

"Gretch! What did Prickly want with you?" Gretchen looked around awkwardly.

"I… uh... don't want to talk about it." She sped up and walked out of TJ's sight. As TJ tried to catch up with her, a crowd gathered around him and cheered. Among the crowd was Spinelli, Mikey, Vince and Gus.

"Three cheers for TJ!"

"Recess forever!"

Cheers like these were heard in the crowd. TJ turned to them and gave his 'acceptance speech'

"Uh, thank you, kids of Third Street. I promise to, uh, be there and bring back what's rightfully ours.

The crowd roared with elation. But it wasn't TJ's best speech, because his mind was elsewhere.

After the crowd cleared all that was left was the 5 friends. They once again gave him his congratulations.

"Sorry I got us in trouble, TJ." Gus looked down.

"That's fine, Gus. It happens to all of us."

"Wherever did Gretchen go? She didn't stay for the crowd!" Mikey asked.

"Not sure, Mikey. It must've been something Prickly said."

"Let's ask her later. Now c'mon, we better enjoy this extra recess while we can," Spinelli said, and took the basketball from Vince's hands.

Gretchen sat on the merry-go-round in the abandoned playground and cried. She didn't think she could tell her friends the news, as much as she wanted to, goodbyes were hard. If she didn't tell, she could save the heartache for herself and her friends.

She stood up after a good 10 minutes of crying. _Pull yourself together Gretchen, _she told herself.

_It's time to find new friends._


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the comments!  
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The next morning, the gang, excluding Gretchen, met up walking to school.

"Hey, where is Gretchen?" TJ asked. "Doesn't she live by you Mikey?"

"Yeah, but we usually rendezvous with you guys."

"Oh…" TJ said. A momentary silence passed. "Don't you think we should check up on her?"

"It's only been one day, Teej," Vince said. "If she doesn't show up by the end of the day, let's find out, ok?" TJ agreed and the rest of his friends had a sigh of relief. Sometimes TJ's willingness to go out of his way for his friends got a little overbearing.

Gretchen woke up half an hour early to take an obscure detour to school. She didn't want to risk socializing with her friends. Or, her _old_ friends. After school yesterday, she stopped by Ms. Lemon's office to get a new homeroom teacher. She swapped out her old blue dress for her athletic suit from her Yo-Yo days. She undid her pigtails and covered her hair with a black beret now. Possibly a little extreme, but you could never be too careful, she told herself, quoting Murphy's Law. Beyond the movie theater lay a rarely used bicycle trail that dropped right by Third Street School.

Gretchen started walking down the path, darkened by the dense trees. Even at 7 in the morning it was quite creepy. She stared up into the canopy as she walked, only to walk straight into something. She and the object made a thud on the ground, and after picking up her glasses noticed it was actually the reigning spelling bee champ, Judy Wurtz.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there."

Judy got up and dusted herself and her glasses off. "That's fine. Hey, you're Gretchen Grundler, aren't you?"

"Why, yes I am. I believe I've seen you around too. Judy, correct?"

"A-f-f-i-r-m-a-t-i-v-e." They both smiled. "You look different from when I last saw you at the science fair."

"Oh, yes. I err, had a slight wardrobe change. It helps my scientist's block. You know, like a writer's block, but for us science geeks…"

Judy rolled her eyes impatiently. "Yes. Well, better get to class." Judy slung her backpack over her back and started walking to another bicycle path. Apparently there were many ways to the school.

"Uh, wait, Judy!"

Judy turned her head. "Yeah?"

"Um, me and my friends are kind of fighting. I was wondering if I could, perchance you were available, play with you at Recess?"

Judy thought for a little, after seeing Gretchen's hopeful look, replied "Ah, why not. Walk with me, Gretchen. This way is quicker."

Gretchen smiled and followed her new "friend". _This isn't so bad_, she thought. _A person who happens to share some of my intellectual interests would be good for me._


	4. Chapter 4

_BOOM!_

Vince kicked the kickball high into the air as his friends marveled.

"Go Vince, Go!" Spinelli yelled. Vince ran to first base and spun to second.

"I got it, I got it!" Gus said in the outfield, as he tried to predict where the ball would land. It bounced on the field and onto the blacktop.

Gus chased the ball as it made its way across the blacktop. It finally made its way under a wooden table where there were two people playing chess. "Check," one of them said to the other, while adjusting her glasses.

Gus couldn't reach the ball, so he asked one of the girls to reach it for him. As she reached under the table and handed him the ball, Gus could see the distinctive eyes and shape of head underneath that black beret.

Once Gus recognized Gretchen, he was stunned from her new wardrobe. He only quickly ran back to the kickball field as Vince just made a home run and Spinelli high-fived him.

"What's the matter Gus? You just stopped and stared at that girl over on the bench." TJ asked.

"Guys! I think that was Gretchen!" And Spinelli and Vince's cheering stopped.

"C'mon, let's go steal her back," Spinelli insisted. But as the 5 kids looked over to the bench, only Judy Wurtz sat there, staring at the chess board.

"What? She was here a second ago!"

"Judy," Mikey politely asked, "do you know where our friend Gretchen has gone to?"

Judy sighed. "I'm probably not supposed to tell you this, but she ran behind the Ashley's clubhouse."

"We can corner her there. Spinelli, Vince, you go around. Gus and Mikey, positions at the front," TJ ordered.

As Spinelli and Vince ran around the fancy heap of tires, out ran the girl with the black beret and sporty jumpsuit. Mikey, Gus and TJ blocked her way, and she was effectively cornered. The gang felt a pang of guilt they had chased and cornered their good friend.

"Gretchen, it's us! Your pals!" TJ asked in a worried tone.

Gretchen looked around frantically. "Oh, no! I'm not supposed to be seen with you guys!"

"Huh?" Spinelli scratched her head. "Whaddya talking about, Gretch?" They then suddenly saw a tall shadow on the grass and cringed.

"Gretchen Grundler," Ms. Finster said through clenched teeth. "What are YOU doing with these hooligans again? Up to no good I bet!"

"But Ms. Finster, I…"

"No buts, missy! I'll have to tell Principal Prickly about this little escapade! Expect your GPA to go down because of your disobedience!"

Gretchen hung her head low as Ms. Finster walked over to the Principal's office. Her friends turned in shock. "Gretchen, is that true?" Vince asked.

"Yes, it's true. I can't hang out with you guys anymore."

"Gretchen…"

"Don't, TJ." She flung her head and looked right at him, and he could see her weary expression. "It's over. I'm sorry." Gretchen slumped back over to the table with Judy.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the double post but I had to add the ~~End Flashback~~ tag.**

**Enjoy and don't forget to comment! :)**

Days past since the gang last saw Gretchen at recess, but it felt like weeks to them. No one felt like doing the usual kickball, four-square or dodgeball. TJ, Spinelli, Mikey, Vince and Gus sat on the grass, feeling pretty bummed out.

"Man, I wish Gretchen were here…" Vince lamented, tossing his basketball up into the air.

"Stop it, guys! You're makin' me sad!" Spinelli stood up and took the basketball from Vince. He looked a little ticked off but he just bowed his head.

"I know, how about a good old prank? We haven't had one of those in a while! Teej, what you got for us?"

"Nothing, Spinelli" TJ sighed. "All my pranks involve one of Gretchen's inventions."

Spinelli snarled. "This just ain't right". She tossed the basketball as hard as she could into the fence. "They're punishing her for just breathin' our air! We can't let them get away with that!"

"Spinelli, try to relax", Mikey said, and looked up into the sky. He seemed almost in a trance. "Don't let your anger control you, control your anger. Cloud gazing helps…"

But Spinelli's frown lengthened. "Geez, Mikey. You could at least _try_ to sound sad for Gretchen."

"I am sad. But what can we do? Look at her."

The group looked over at the table where Gretchen and Judy sat playing chess. They finished a game with a stalemate, and they were… laughing. Grinning ear to ear, Gretchen smiled wider than TJ or anyone's ever seen before.

Spinelli's eyes widened and her mouth hung still. Gus adjusted his glasses and looked even more worried than he usually did. Vince looked around at his friends in disbelief. Mikey simply closed his eyes submissively.

But TJ was expressionless. He simply stared as his brain tried to process all the thoughts in his head. His worst fear, the thing he hoped would never happen, had come to life. TJ had spent his whole life finding a diverse-yet-cool set of friends. He didn't have hardly anything in common with them, other than that he could get along with anyone.

Now, it was all falling apart. With this new policy Gretchen had realized their differences and moved on. Was their whole friendship a lie? Blinded by TJ's charm? Was he just keeping her from finding her true friends, the ones who shared interest in math and science, this whole time?

Gretchen paused a moment in her laughter and caught out of the corner of her eye TJ, running through the gate in the schoolyard fence. Her expression turned to gloom as feelings of grief welled up inside her.

~~~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~

"What's your name red hair girl?" The red hat boy asked.

"Uhhh…. Gretchen." She replied, covering her pile of rocks as she looked up at him.

"Gret… chen," he sounded it out slowly. "What kind of a name is that?"

"Um, the origin is Greek?" She nervously replied.

"What's Greek?"

Gretchen smiled. "Greek is the language of Greece, a very old country that used to be comprised of city-states…"

The boy interrupted. "You're smart. I like you. My name's TJ."

"You like me?" Gretchen asked. "Even if I'm kind of weird?"

"Sure I do. Can I play with those rocks too?"

"Ok," Gretchen said. "I organized them by formation type. I'll have the igneous pile and you can have the sedimentary pile."

"Uh… cool." TJ smiled and sat down with her.

~~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~~~

TJ ran and ran. He ran to the one place he could get his thoughts out, the lake. He stopped by the lake front to lean over and catch his breath. Then he picked up as many stones as he could and threw them. Smooth, rough, it didn't matter. But he couldn't even skip the smooth ones and tossed a handful into the lake out of frustration.

"TJ?" He stopped and turned around.

Gus appeared from the shade of the trees.

"Gus? What are you doing here? And how did you find me?"

"Gee, Teej, I know this is where you always go, I'm your friend."

TJ's eyes narrowed and his lips made a small pout. "But why are you?"

Gus scratched his head. "Uh… I'm not sure I follow you."

TJ criss-crossed on the sandy lake front, and Gus did the same. "All this Gretchen junk is my fault. I took advantage of her, of the gang."

"Took advantage? But we're all your pals!"

"And why are we all so different?" TJ asked. They both fell silent for a while – the gentle breeze blowing as they rested on that thought. Gus was shocked by the amazing truth behind that statement. "I… I wanted a diverse group of friends. A group I could do this stuff with. You know, pulling pranks and saving the school and all. I thought I was just finding people I thought were cool, but seeing Gretchen happy without us…"

TJ closed his eyes and struggled through his confession. "It makes me realize I was just holding her back." TJ grabbed a big stone and hurled it into the lake, getting more distressed by the minute. "Vince and his athletics, Spinelli and her toughness, Mikey with his height and peaceful personality! I was just using all of them for their skills! I'm such a rotten kid!"

Gus smiled a little. "Well TJ, what about me?"

"Huh?" TJ regained his composure on the ground.

"I'm not really that good at anything, aren't I?"

"C'mon Gus, don't say that…"

"No, it's true." Gus maintained a solemn yet completely calm composure. "I don't have any amazing noteworthy skills. Not right now, anyway." Then he looked straight into TJ's eyes. "But you took me in on the first day, me, the new kid. You were my friend despite all that." TJ put his hand up to his chin in a thinking position.

"Or just recently, that prank with the water cups," Gus continued. "You knew I would probably mess it up but you gave me an important part anyway, didn't you? You all took me in, including Gretchen. So wouldn't it make sense there's more to friendship than just liking the same stuff, or having skills?"

TJ listened intently but looked more confused. The way Gus explained it made sense, but in his gut it still didn't.

"You asked me why I'm your friend. But why am I YOUR friend, Teej?"

TJ was taken aback by the question. He thought about it for a second and said "You inspire me, Gus. You're a good kid." TJ thought about this and smiled. "Oh." Gus smiled back. "I never thought you would be giving _me_ advice on stuff, Gus," TJ chuckled.

"Just returning the favor for all the times you helped me."

TJ tilted his head and sighed. "But what about Gretchen? Why did she seem so happy without us?"

Gus stood up and dusted the sand off his pants. "I don't know, Teej. But the least we can do is stop that stupid rule. Then… then it'll just be her choice." Gus reached out his hand and helped TJ up. "So, you got a plan?"

TJ grinned. "As a matter of fact I do."


End file.
